The Dark Art of Ignorance
“….and finally I twist my heart round again, so that the bad is on the outside and the good is in the inside and keep on trying to find a way of becoming what I would so like be, and what I could be, if….. there weren’t any other people living in the world.”
I close the book. I was fifteen then and throughout my fifteen years of living, I’ve never felt this way before. It was the end of childhood for me. The end of fairy tale fantasies and the beginning of reality. I find myself afflicted with emotions, stunned, overwhelmed with goosebumps.
It was Anne Frank’s diary.
Perhaps you wonder, why is this such a big deal for me?
Well, the truth is, I was blind to the ugly truth of life. I’ve never seen reality before. My little world of childish fantasies has sheltered me from the true colors of the world. I don’t know a thing about the world. I’ve never heard of the holocaust. I don’t know who the Jews were. I can’t even point out Germany on the world map. I was clueless. Trapped in a dark, dungeon of a thoughtless life. Writing this makes me feel embarrass of my ignorant past. Nevertheless, I feel it is important for me to remember how it feels. Perhaps I will be more aware of ignorance in the future.
Yes, I remember those feeling well. I remember being shockingly impressed by Anne’s knowledge of the world. The fact that reading and writing excites her. Who live like that? I can’t even read without falling asleep, let alone writing. I was envious. Why do I know so little when she knows so much? Why does she even bother to think so deeply into things that do not even matter to me? We are of the same age, yet why do we have such a significant gap of knowledge.
That was when I realize I have lots to catch up with. The moment I realize people out there are not as clueless as I am. People my own age are out there fighting for human rights and writing essays about global warming and there I was, crawling in my baby steps to understand the whole structure of the world. Of course, it wasn’t like a magical moment or anything, it takes years of reading and documentaries and question marks every now and then but yes, it was my starting point. As for now, I still have lots to learn, I still have tons of question marks, and I know there will be no end to understanding this funny world yet again I am freed from my dark forest of ignorance. Definitely, a better place to be.
I have to make it clear here, I don’t think it is just about the process of growing up, it goes deeper than that. It is about choice and chances. I was given the opportunity of getting access to books and informational media, I know for the fact that not everyone in the world is as lucky as I am. So, is it really their fault if they don’t know how the world map looks like if they are not even lucky enough to own pens and papers? Yet again, I also understand that that is not always the case. There are those who fail to make a better choice despite the great luxury they have, access to education and information. We all know there are adults out there who still have no clue about the Middle East conflicts and we have young adults who are passionately involve in stopping human rights abuses. So, is it really the matter of growing up? Do we really need to be in the right age to start understanding life? I don’t think so.
I have been on both sides of the story. I have been the clueless girl being laugh at for lack of understanding of the world and I’m have been one of those people who can’t help from banging my head from the silliest logic people have about the world when they clearly have no idea. Well, I guess it’s the same with everyone else. If you were to dig deep into your own life history, you would somehow know how it feels to be the clueless one and have a ‘know it all person’ telling you stuff you are not really interested to know. I mean how annoying would it be when you just want to have a good cup of coffee with an old friend while gossiping about unimportant rumors when he/she critically ask your opinion about complicated world issues you never ever heard about. At the same time, you know how annoying it is when people care more about the ups and downs of a celebrity dramatic ‘make believe’ life rather than the blast that killed millions. Somehow another person’s personal life seems more interesting than the typhoon that wipe away millions of life. It’s just another life cycle. Sadly, most people around the world are not in this cycle. They grow old and eventually die not knowing the real story behind the world while living their life passionately believe in a lie.
So what? So what if people chose to be happy with their sheltered life and live a wonderful life anyway? So what is people don’t want to know about the world? Why does it bother me when people don’t want to take effort into understanding the world? Does it really matter?
Yes, it does.
It does matter when people live their whole life hating another group of human being without understanding the real situation. It matters when politicians take advantage of our ignorance for political agenda that tears the world apart. It matters when pseudo facts make people kill others they believe are purely evil. It matters when people only know one side of a complicated story and draws a dangerous conclusion based on that. It matters when millions of people die in the genocide that is spark by the lack of understanding. It matters when there are issues out there that can actually be solved if there are more participants. It matters when we choose to not understand. It matters when we choose to embrace the dark art of ignorance.
